A new type of blood test can detect a hidden toxin behind Alzheimer's disease before a patient shows any symptoms.
If the proof-of-concept can be further tested and scaled, it could give millions of patients answers and access to proper care.
The blood test was created by researchers at the University of Washington. It's designed to pick up on a molecule in the blood that can cause it to clump in the brain.
A plaques are a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease but their role in cognitive decline is not certain. These plaques have been shown to lead to cognitive decline.
Studies show that A plaques are only present in a third of Alzheimer's patients, and sometimes they are present in the brains of people who don't have cognitive deficits.
extracellular A plaques in the brain are not necessarily toxic in and of themselves, but they may be the result of difficult to detect toxins.
The toxins are functional versions of the A. They are known as 'toxic A oligomers', and some scientists think they could cause damage to the brain from afar.
Scientists are still figuring out the details, but the hypothesis led to the creation of the SOBA.
SOBA was tested on 310 people. Mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's disease were shown by some participants while others were in good cognitive health.
All 53 participants with Alzheimer's who were later confirmed to have the disease had toxic A oligomers in their blood.
The control group had no detection of oligomers in the blood samples. Mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's was diagnosed in ten of the participants.
A reliable diagnostic test for Alzheimer's disease is what clinicians and researchers want, but one that can also detect signs of the disease before cognitive impairment occurs, according to bioengineers from the University of Washington.
It's important for individuals' health and for all the research into how toxic oligomers of amyloid alpha go on and cause damage. The basis of such a test may be shown here.
SOBA can't do everything. Alzheimer's is only one of many diseases marked by toxic oligomers.
Parkinson's disease, type II diabetes, and Lewy body dementia are all associated with misfolding proteins, which means SOBA could one day be modified to pick up early markers of these illnesses.
Some tests have tried to measure markers of Alzheimer's, but have different levels of success.
A blood analysis that also detected A precursors predicted the start of Alzheimer's up to 30 years before the first symptoms appeared.
Similar predictions can be made by SOBA.
Only blood tests that measure for genes associated with Alzheimer's are currently used, but these tests are not as good at predicting who will develop the disease.
That could be on the verge of changing because of tests like SOBA.
The study was published in a peer reviewed journal.
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